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Aein divided up her belongings, sorting out the things she had been given from the things that were on loan. King Vadim was in dragon form and unable to do much more than cling to his shape, but he smiled when he saw Finn's transformation and nodded his head when Aein told them that they needed to go.
She found Ragnhild and worked out the details of tomorrow's departure, and was a little embarrassed that Ragnhild insisted there would be a feast that night to see them off. Aein also found Lars and informed him of Finn's ability to shift and that they were leaving the following day. The words had been formal and stiff; Aein did not wait to see what he had to say about it. She delivered the message and walked away.
And now it dawned on her that they were about to go back into the swamp again. Her blood pressure rose and the old ache in her arm fired up. She sat on her bed and stared out of the window. This place had treated her differently than anywhere else. They had welcomed her and her friends in. They had taught Finn how to control his shift. They had shared the gift of the berries with them freely.
There was still a part of her that was suspicious. Why had they been so kind? Why were they so generous to strangers? True, Queen Gisla had given her some of the same generosity, but the price was time served in the guard. She was met with suspicion and hatred from the people in the keep who blamed her for their sovereign's shift. She was hated for who she was and where she came from. But this place?
She smoothed the wool blanket on the bed.
This place did not care. They welcomed Aein and her friends just because they shared the shift, too. Or perhaps they were welcomed because they were human beings and worthy of being welcomed.
There had to be some trick to it, Aein thought, standing and restarting her packing.
There was a slight knock at the door.
"Come in!" she shouted over her shoulder.
The door opened and Lars stood in the opening. His pale skin was in a permanent state of burned. His red hair had grown long, too. In fact, it was almost longer than Aein's. His arms were crossed and his head hung slightly to the side, as if he was unsure if he should be there. "So... you are almost all packed," he commented.
With all of her things spread around the room, it seemed an obvious answer. Aein turned to him, squaring her shoulders. "Are you done?"
"Don't be like that," he said, holding out his hands as if to hug her.
She backed away. "You should pack if you're not finished."
"Aein," he sighed. "We had a fight. It was weeks ago. Don't be angry with me anymore. We're going into the swamp and will have to be together every hour of the waking day. Can't we... can't we be friends again?"
She rolled up a pair of pants. Everything they had would be carried on their back as they walked through the swamp. It wouldn't do to pack too much, but an extra set of trousers would come in handy if she ripped the ones she was wearing on some monster's fangs.
"Aein, look at me," Lars begged.
She turned to him and held her arms out. "What? What do you want to say to me? We have at least a month on the road together and we will have plenty of time to figure it out. In fact, it will give us a fantastic conversation starter since Finn will still be a wolf and unable to participate. So, what do you need to say to me this very moment that can't be said when I'm not busy?"
Lars sighed. "I'm sorry if I offended you—"
"You didn't offend me."
"Obviously I did, otherwise you wouldn't still be mad at me."
Aein picked up one of her tunics and threw it on to her pile. "Lars, my number one priority is and always has been to survive. I told you from the start this wasn't a good time to start a relationship. You didn't listen. And I was proved correct. There are things you need to do, things regarding your life—"
"—our life, Aein," he said, looking at her like a sad puppy dog. She wanted to shove his face into a wall.
"No, Lars. You made decisions about your life, which you should. Now I am making decisions about my life. Which I should have from the start. And my decision is that I don't have time for romantic entanglements when one or all of us might get eaten by a rogue werewolf in the swamp, especially now that we don't have our regular werewolf to guard us after the sun goes down."
"I thought Finn could shift at will now," said Lars. His voice had an edge to it.
Aein rested her fist on her hip. "Yes, but he's not able to hold it long enough to save our lives yet."
"Aein, you held your own without being able to shift as well as Finn and I ever did as werewolves."
"Not exactly," she said, holding up her arm and showing off the scar. "Remember this? Remember when I went toe-to-toe with Queen Gisla and she crushed my bones?"
"But we have a basketful of berries now," said Lars. "We feed them to the rogue werewolves and everything will be fine."
"I love how everything is always just 'fine' with you, Lars," said Aein, returning to her packing.
"Aein, I loved you. I love you!" he pleaded, sitting on the bed in the middle of her things. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
She looked at him and hated him. She hated that he would use love as a tool against her. She hated that he wouldn't listen to what she was saying. She hated that she had the world on her shoulders and all he could think about was whether she belonged to him or not.
"I have to pack," she said, pushing him out the door.
It was going to be a long journey.